Friday, January 8, 2010

Christmas Day Bomber Pleads Not Guilty

The lawyered-up underwear bomber pleads not guilty in his initial court appearance in Detroit federal court:

Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the man charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on December 25, pleaded not guilty Friday to six federal charges.

Wearing a white T-shirt, too-long khaki pants that were rolled up several times at the ankles and blue sneakers, the 23-year-old Nigerian national walked slowly into the federal courtroom, ankles shackled and in apparent pain after having suffered second- and third-degree burns in the flight.

Asked by the judge whether he was taking any medication, he replied he was taking painkillers but that he understood the six charges he faced.

AbdulMutallab faces the following charges according to the federal indictment from the office of Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan:

attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction

attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States

willful attempt to destroy and wreck an aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States

willfully placing a destructive device in, upon and in proximity to an aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States which was likely to endanger the safety of such aircraft, and

two counts of possession of a firearm/destructive in furtherance of a crime of violence

In a move that will make us all safer, the U.S. State Department announced on January 5 that it had revoked AbdulMutallab's visa.